On the rise

Carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that has had the largest impact on our climate, will continue to rise even if current national and international targets for reducing emissions are met, scientists warn.

But, they say, strong action taken now, such as the 80 per cent target recently announced by the UK government, will continue to have benefits a long time into the future.

The scientists reached their conclusions after combining the outcomes of proposals by the G8 countries and the UK government's Stern Review with the latest knowledge of climate change feedbacks relating to the carbon cycle.

Their findings show that short term cuts alone will not solve the problem and that policy makers need to plan for hundreds of years into the future.

Working alongside colleagues from the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Met Office Hadley Centre and Exeter University, Jo House, from the Natural Environment Research Council's QUEST programme at Bristol University, ran computer models to see what would happen under the G8 plans to cut global emissions by 50 per cent by 2050.